Philadelphia Eagles coach Chip Kelly's grand scheme takes wing

Kelly brings frenetic offensive attack from Oregon gridiron

There are four years of tape out there, four years of this stocky man who looks like his eyes might drill holes in your heart. There are four years of him pacing the sidelines, four years of his teams beating the living bejesus out of their opponents by tiring them to the bone and scoring at will.

Some of those tapes — Chip Kelly being the man, Oregon the team — might be in what Broncos defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio calls the team's "cupboard," where they store material in the offseason that they'll use to prepare for upcoming opponents. They might, but Del Rio isn't going into detail.

Coach John Fox is citing this year's Philadelphia Eagles stats, that one — one! — three-and-out in three games, not any game Oregon dominated in recent years.

It's simple. This is about the Eagles, Sunday's opponent, and nothing further. Even so, the specter of Kelly and everything he accomplished at Oregon still invokes questions. Is his fast-paced read-option offense the future of the NFL? Is college the breeding ground for where the professional league is headed?

Maybe, but it's too early to say, and Kelly's role in this isn't quite what the world makes of it. He was a highly successful college coach, working with a variation on a trend that has infiltrated the NFL. The Eagles liked what they saw and thought he could make it work at football's highest level.

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"I didn't sell the Eagles management on anything," Kelly said on a conference call this week. "We just discussed their visions for their organization and my vision for an organization, and it matched."

Asked if what he's doing is the beginning of a trend, Kelly said: "I don't look at it that way. I'm just trying to figure out what's the best way for the Philadelphia Eagles to be successful on Sunday. I don't think 50,000 feet above, globally, from that standpoint."

University of Colorado coach Mike Mac- Intyre, who's worked in the NFL and now in Kelly's former league, the Pac-12, has seen this trend Kelly refuses to acknowledge on a bigger scope. He's watched systems bleed through from college to the pros, but he thinks what's happening is much bigger than that.

College players these days are mastering more advanced schemes, MacIntyre said, and they're capable of carrying them into the pros. It goes even further, though: According to the coach, that sophistication is a result of more advanced youth football programs, where eighth-graders are executing zone reads and running precise routes. Football is more advanced across all levels, hence the crossover.

Of course there will be differences between what Kelly's team does this season and what Oregon accomplished during his tenure. The Ducks averaged more than 82 plays per game last year; the Eagles are averaging 66.3 this year after 77 in Week 1. Part of that is Kelly's disregard for time of possession, and part is the fact that the NFL doesn't allow for the personnel that made his intense offenses fire in college.

"In college, we take 70 guys or more into a game," MacIntyre said. "On these teams that are running hurry-up offense, they have three or four running backs. They have about eight or nine receivers that run in and run out. They'll just run on the field and start to play, and if they run a deep route, they'll run out and another guy will come in."

What Kelly is doing is putting his spin on the read-option trend that's growing in the NFL, capitalizing on the fact that the scheme that made him successful is catching on. NFL defensive coordinators are turning to their college buddies to solve it, and the two games are growing closer. The coach with the next great college idea who can win big might be poached by the NFL, or he might not, but his ideas certainly will be.

Any NFL team can adopt an offense it likes, even Kelly's, with enough studying. The Eagles instead bought the whole package, coach and system, and the value they likely see in Kelly goes beyond any notion that the college game is taking over the pros.

It all comes back to what Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning always says it does, execution, and if Kelly has a successful offense, he also has a successful level of intensity that demands just that.

Clipping their wings

1. Tempo: Philadelphia's offense is predicated on its tempo, whether that's receivers developing their routes or quarterback Michael Vick getting the ball out of his hand as quickly as possible. Opposing defenses shouldn't have time to catch their breath.

2. Packaged plays: The Eagles don't just run the read option; they're running the read option packaged with several other passing and running plays at once, on the same snap. Teams know this, but it's still difficult to shut down each of the Eagles' options in a hurry-up fashion.

3. The run game: Even though coach Chip Kelly inherited this group of personnel, Vick and running back LeSean McCoy are well suited to his system's running game. McCoy leads the league in rushing yards, and Vick has the second-most of any quarterback, behind Terrelle Pryor.

4. Agility: This isn't an offense that's going to overpower — or even push back at — a strong defense; players are simply going to use their speed to evade defenders.

5. Scoring early: The key to the Eagles' success is accruing a big lead early. That's what they did in their one victory, against Washington, and even then, the Redskins eventually made things close. For an offense that's playing so intensely and quickly, the key is building an insurmountable lead. Playing catch-up is tough.